Toni Morrison and Literary Tradition : The Invention of an Aesthetic
Author(s): Justine Baillie
Toni Morrison and Literary Tradition explores Toni Morrison's construction of alternative and oppositional narratives of history and places her work as central to the imagining and re-imagining of American and diasporic identities. Covering the Nobel Prize-winning author's novels (up to Home), as well as her essays, dramatic works and short stories, this book situates Morrison's writings within both African-American and American writing traditions and examines them in terms of her continuous dialogue with the politics, philosophy and literary forms of these traditions. Toni Morrison and Literary Tradition provides a comprehensive analysis of Morrison's entire oeuvre, from her early interrogation of Black Power to her engagement with fin de siècle postcolonial critiques of nationalism and twenty-first century considerations of ecology. Justine Baillie goes on to argue that Morrison's aesthetic should be understood in relation to the historical, political and cultural contexts in which it, and the African-American and American literary traditions upon which she draws, have been created and developed.
Review(s):
“The scope and accessibility of this work make it a valuable introduction to Morrison and an effective resource for those teaching Morrison's novels; the depth and nuance of Baillie's scholarship and argument make it an important contribution to ongoing critical conversations about Morrison's role in developing a uniquely African American aesthetic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.” —CHOICE
ISBN: 9781441183101